Crime

Inquest into death of woman murdered by daughter-in-law

A CORONER will examine the death of a Southampton grandmother brutally battered with a rolling pin at an inquest next week.

Baljit Kaur Buttar, 56, was found with fatal injuries to her head, neck and body following the frenzied attack at her family’s Swaythling home.

Her daughter-in-law Rajvinder Kaur was earlier this year convicted of her murder after trial at Winchester Crown Court .

Kaur, 37, repeatedly lied in a bid to cover her tracks after the death, even forcing her nine-year- old son to see his grandmother lying dead in a bloodsoaked bathroom in a vain attempt to try to
fix her own alibi.

She claimed her mother-in-law, who was found naked and dead in the bath on February 25, 2011, had either slipped and banged her head or suffered a heart attack. Kaur, who was living in the UK
illegally after her visa expired, twice faced trial over Mrs Buttar’s death.

The first hearing had to be abandoned when Kaur changed her story and suddenly admitted killing her mother-in-law, claiming manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

But she continued to deny murder, so a further trial was held in July.

Kaur claimed she had been provoked into losing all self-control by Mrs Buttar who was unkind, called her names and made threats against her during a six-month visit from India.

The court heard how Kaur made repeated attempts to mislead police, the courts and even her own psychiatrist.

When paramedics arrived at the Broadlands Road house, after Mrs Buttar’s grandson had run into the street to beg a passer-by to let him use a phone to call an ambulance, they found Kaur washing her
mother-in-law’s body with a handheld shower over the bath.

Doctors who assessed Kaur while she was held on remand had described the killing as “a blitz attack that continued with a passion”, adding that she had suffered a “catastrophic loss of control”.

After a fortnight of evidence, the jury took just two hours to convict her.

Kaur wept in the dock as a judge handed her a life sentence, saying she must serve a minimum of 11 years behind bars.

Mrs Buttar’s death will now be examined at an inquest at Southampton Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.